“Unbearably White” by Vampire Weekend

"Unbearably White" went out in 2019 as the third single from Vampire Weekend's Father of the Bride, paired with "This Life" on a double A-side, and its title is a dare. The phrase had been hurled at the band before as a dig about their race; Ezra Koenig used it as a title, then wrote about a relationship coming apart. Some called the title a prank, though Koenig did tell The Sunday Times the song partly takes on white people bickering over who is slightly more or less white, a squabble he doesn't find very interesting.

He wrote it alone, sings it, and produced it with Ariel Rechtshaid, who also mixed, while BloodPop added extra production. The art pop track moves from bare vocals to handbells, fusion-tinted bass and swelling orchestral passages, and Pitchfork's Sheldon Pearce called it gorgeous.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.